Halloween -- Thai style

Okay, I'll be up front about this, Thais don't celebrate Halloween (something about Buddhism being their official religion), but that didn't stop Jackie and I. We didn't hop on the expat "holiday" bar scene that feels like a generic appendage of every expat community in the world, from Accra to Buenos Aires to Phuket. We waited for the real holiday to roll around, we're not some fair-weather weekend celebrators. Halloween was on Monday, so we celebrated it on Monday

I kicked off the holiday by waking up and totally forgetting what day it was. The celebrations really started when I got to work, where, like any good office employee, I celebrated by browsing Halloween ecards. I eventually selected a diced up and overdubbed dancing skeletons video for Jackie's ecard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlKSEYVZ7C4&feature=player_embedded




















Putting on our Halloween Party faces!               Ghostly coconut of rum starts levitating                                      


It was also payday, so Jackie and I rolled away from the inland cheapies for a sea-view restaurant in Rawai. Sitting above the gentle black ocean water we enjoyed the sand on our feet as we tried our holiday concoction, fresh coconut water with a shot of Captain Morgan. The glow of the candle brought the darkness of the ocean and the shadows of the looming tree above us to the foreground of our imaginations.

We paid the bill and awkwardly walked out of the restaurant holding our empty coconut shells.

After a quick trip to the 7/11 and Big C we had our stock of candy, as well as rum and apple juice -- a pale comparison to good spiked cider on a cold autumn evening, but still a reasonable fit for the our night.

Ar home we poured ourselves a healthy helping of spirits and gathered all the sharp objects we could on the front porch. We were making coconut jack o lanterns!

Jackie, surrounded by the weapons of her craft

We fine-tuned our holiday spirits with the proper play lists: http://8tracks.com/dirtyshirty/this-is-halloween and http://8tracks.com/endofmarch/monsters-witches-ghosts-oh-my

Isaac getting work done with the rock hammer            Jackie gouging out some eye-sockets

Then I took the rock hammer to my coconut with surprising success. In no time at all I was left with a mostly full drink and an almost perfect jack o lantern. I fiddled and fiddled with it until I was sure that everything I was doing was just making things worse. I was forced to retire from the creative world of jack o lantern "carving" and watched Jackie create a Vegetarian Festival themed jack o lantern as I sipped my apple juice and rum.

We made an effort to dance to the Time Warp, but it turns out there's a lot of free time between the explained steps.

Without parents to tell us otherwise, seeing as we are full grown "adults," Jackie and I were able attempt to build fires in our jack o lanterns instead of using candles.

Finally, I stripped down to the weakest "Batman" costume and snuck out the side door so I could come around front and do a little trick or treating. I admittedly felt a bit sheepish (not batish) standing in my underwear, wearing a mask, and asking Jackie to give me the candy that I had bought just an hour ago.

Trick or Treat!

All in all I have to admit that it was a stellar two person Halloween party!